This article was inspired by the play of Syracuse Junior midfielder Jackson Birtwistle.
In case you missed it, Birtwistle recently broke an incredible streak.
With his assist over Johns Hopkins, Birtwistle recorded the first assist of his career. It was his 50th career point. Yes, Birtwistle (who is a middie) scored 49 career goals before registering his first career assist. That inspired me to look into the top snipers around the country who are shall we say… better at scoring.
To be clear, this is not meant to criticize any of the listed players. Most of these guys have high goal percentages because of the roles that they are asked to play, not because of lack of ability, selfishness, or any other intangible factor.
The premise here is pretty simple. The statlines for these guys look similar to that of a Cy-Young award winning pitcher. For Birtwistle, 49-0 surely would have won him some hardware.
So I looked into every Cy-Young award winner ever. Cumulatively, the award winners are a combined 2451-893. That’s good for a 73.3% win percentage. I decided that was my cutoff, to look for players for whom goals contributed at least 73.3% of their total points. These beauties are the aces of Division I. When the metaphorical bases are loaded, these are the guys you want with the ball in their sticks.
I set the limit as a minimum of 10 goals scored this season. Ironically, this actually excludes Birtwistle. Can’t make this stuff up folks!
Let’s get into it.
Category 1: Chasing History
No Cy-Young award winner had ever tossed a perfect season. Seven players are still in the running this season. Jack Aimone of Rutgers is the leader right now, having scored 15 goals without an assist. Navy’s Henry Tolker is trialing close behind with 13. Towson’s Brode Maurer is at 12. High Point’s Matt Lutzel, Robert Morris’ Ben Starkey, Colgate’s Ben Trumble all have 11. Scott O’Connor of Manhattan has 10.
Trumble is shooting a remarkable 64.7%. His 11 goals have come on just 17 shots.
Last season, Birtwistle had an incredible 27 goals and 0 assists. The next closest 0 assister had 15 goals.
The closest I could find to the perfect season was Stony Brook’s Brody Eastwood. In his first two years, he had a single assist each season. So at one point, he had 88 goals and 2 assists. His assists “ballooned” to six and seven in his last two years.
Category 2: Cooperstown
The unquestioned clubhouse favourites are Michigan’s Justin Tiernan and Duke’s Dyson Williams. Tiernan has the highest number of goals of anyone who qualified under the criteria. He’s got 32 goals compared to just 3 assists, and he has a game in hand with Williams.
Like an old-school breaking ball pitcher though, Williams is the best bet for the purists. 96.88% of Williams points this year have been goals. When translated to baseball, that would be the highest winning percentage of any pitcher in Cy-Young history. The closes was Chicago’s Rick Sutcliffe who won 94% in 1994.
In his career, Williams has 182 goals and 22 assists. That’s good for 89.2% of his total points. Again switching to baseball, the last time that happened in the Majors, Atlanta’s Greg Maddux and Seattle’s Randy Johnson both won 90% of their games in 1995. Williams is on an elite clip.
Category 3: The Contenders
23 other players have a single assist on the season, and have a goal to point percentage higher than 90%. Harvard’s Blake Graham is 20-1, Lafayette’s John Mathes and Yale’s David Anderson are 18-1, and St. Bonaventure’s Kellen Pulera is 17-1.
Here is the rest of the 90% club.
We will continue to monitor this all season long, especially the guys still without an assist. Until then, may these guys keep shooting.
If you’re their teammate, maybe just look for the backup (just kidding).